Support is continuing to flood in for a campaign to save key hospital burns services in the North East.

Dorothy Keelan and her family are the latest to back the bid to safeguard the status of Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary's unit for badly injured children.

Her son, Sam, now four, was only three years old when his pyjamas caught fire, causing severe burns and resulting in him spending Christmas 2003 in hospital.

The accident happened early one Sunday morning while his mum Dorothy was in bed but she ran downstairs when she heard the screams before calling an ambulance to their Longbenton home.

He was taken to the RVI and mum, dad Ron, and three brothers Jonathan 16, Jamie 14 and Thomas, six, had to take pictures of Sam's toys to show him while he was in hospital. Dorothy said: "He got hold of a lighter and decided to burn a hole in his pyjama top but the fire caught hold.

"His neck and chest were badly burned, along with his forearms, and he was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary where he stayed for four and a half weeks.

"It was the worst thing for him to be in at Christmas. We'd just got a digital camera so we took photos of all his presents to show him."

Scores of families who have been helped by the RVI have come forward since a campaign was launched last month.

"If we'd had to go somewhere like Manchester it would have been horrendous," nursery nurse Dorothy, 41, added. "He wouldn't have been able to get so many visits from his friends and family and that was the only thing which kept him going through it all."

A review by the National Burn Care Group has suggested burns care should be split into three: facilities for minor burns with some plastic surgery; burns units to handle the majority of injuries and burns centres to deal with critical cases.

The care group's draft proposals suggest having only one burns centre in the North, which means Newcastle going head to head with Manchester to house it.